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Friday, May 29, 2015

The last day of school was filled with excitement! We started off the day watching a Teacher vs. 6th Grade volleyball game and before we knew it, it was time for our make-your-own-sundae party.

Students enjoyed loading up their bowls with yummy toppings.

Thank you to everyone who sent in toppings for this delicious end to our day!

Once everyone was finished eating, students signed yearbooks.

I passed out memory books for anyone who didn't have a yearbook so everyone had something to collect signatures.

Then it was time to line the hallway to "clap out" the 6th grade students. There were lots of tears during this bittersweet occasion.

Possibly the most exciting part of the day came when a student revealed that he had heard some of our students mentioned on TV while watching PBS in regards to one of the writing contests we entered this year. We did a little googling and sure enough, we had two third place winners and a first place winner! Congrats to these students and I hope to do a blog post when I get more information!

The 2014-2015 school year was an incredible one for me, and I will never forget it. Each student played a special role and brought something important to the class. This was a class of eager learners, high achievers and students who were kind, generous, funny and sweet. Through this blog, you now have a permanent record of the amazing 2014-2015 school year. The blog will be archived so you and/or your child can look back at what we did in 1st or 2nd grade.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Wow! I was recently informed that a student from our class placed first in the Be Kind National Writing Contest! Every student in the class entered this contest earlier this year a by writing an essay about the kindest person they know, accompanied by an illustration. The Be Kind people said they received many entries from all over the United States but Archana's stood out among the K-2 age division!

Archana received a whole goodie bag full of awesome prizes along with a set of Be Kind t-shirts for the entire class. Way to go!

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Throughout the year, we competed in several academic contests. Medals and awards came in right around the same time for two of them! Congratulations to our Word Masters Challenge Champions! The Word Masters Challenge is an advanced analogy and vocabulary competition and consists of three meets during the school year.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

In the self-contained gifted program, we do not focus much on Accelerated Reader (AR) as it is lower level thinking according to Bloom's Taxonomy. However, I have found there are some very positive benefits to AR in 1st and 2nd grade, including good test taking practice and checking for understanding and reading comprehension, versus just fluency.

Triple Millionaires!

The school promotes a school-wide "Millionaire Contest" which challenges students to read a million words (or more) over the course of the school year. As AR is not a requirement in my class, this is an accomplishment that is almost entirely student-motivated.

Benefits that come with reaching the coveted millionaire status include being allowed to check out extra books from the school library (an extra book a week per million), a certificate for a free meal, being honored by the principal at one of the quarterly award ceremonies, a cool "million-dollar-bill" bookmark and of course bragging rights. But probably the most sought after prize is the exclusive ice-cream party!

The Class Read Nearly 21 Million Words This Year

A student in my class this year was the first millionaire in the entire school, reaching a million words within just a couple days of school starting. This set the pace for the rest of the year and the class very competitively devoured books with a goal on the horizon. I've never had so many "millionaires" in one class and it is very rare for a 1st or 2nd grader to read a million words. Congratulations Radical Readers! Keep up the voracious reading this summer!

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Earlier this year the class completed a Social Studies unit about Kindness and at the end of the unit, the entire class entered the Be Kind People Project Creative Expression Contest to demonstrate what he or she had learned. I am thrilled and honored to announce we had a first place winner in the technology category!

Akellz was a ton of fun and lead the class through the Be Kind Pledge. He discussed every word in the pledge, what it meant and why it was important. Then he had the kids partner up and create a kindness handshake.

The kids loved being out of their seats singing, dancing, cheering and clapping! Below is a little snippet from our Skype.

Monday, May 4, 2015

We are down to only a few more spelling lists and tests for this school year! This week instead of our usual pre-assessment to determine which list students will study for the week, students came up with their own spelling lists.

Students broke into small groups and scoured the dictionary looking for words they thought would be appropriate. They added the words to a shared Google doc. When all groups finished we reviewed the lists to make sure we didn't have any duplicates, words we had already studied this year or words deemed to be "too easy" or "too difficult."

Not surprisingly, none of the words were determined to be too difficult because this is a group that likes a challenge! Students took a survey after this activity and almost unanimously students said they were excited to have some ownership of the list and they hoped they would be able to challenge their classmates with the words they chose.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

We had a blast tie-dying shirts this week using Sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol!

These are the materials you need for this tie-dye science project.

First, students isolated a small section of their shirt by putting it over a cup and wrapping a rubber band around it. Then, they meticulously drew a design in the middle of this shirt section using a Sharpie marker.

Next, students drizzled some rubbing alcohol on their design using a straw.

The results were immediate! Students were excited to watch their designs morph right before their eyes.

We continued repeating these steps until students felt their shirts were complete.

We made observations and predictions and collected data as we worked.

Our finished product was a uniquely designed t-shirt! We had a great class discussion regarding the chemistry of why the ink separated, why this project worked with rubbing alcohol and why it would not work with water.